Stay Tuned for June's Give Away.....

"When can their glory fade?"

NEVER!

God Bless America and the men and women who defend her. 

A warm thank you to all military and their families for all you do.

And the Winner is...

Congratulations Mandie Baxter!

 You Won!

Watch for my email, I'll get Wither in the mail ASAP.

Thanks everyone for participating.

Watch for June's give-away coming soon.

Here's another great give away...

CYNSATIONS

 Manuscript Critique Giveaway

 Don't miss out on this one! 

Elizabeth Law is offering a thirty-page manuscript critique giveaway.

Fellow Writers...

 Stina Lindenblatt is having a wonderful give away.


Just look at these prizes!


Prizes

1. Donald Maass’s Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook (2 copies): If you want to know why I love the workbook and how I’ve used it in my revisions of my WIP, then check out the appropriate links to my past posts.

2. First chapter critique (3): This also includes the form I filled out when I was a judge for a recent RWA (Romance Writers of America) Chapter contest. If your novel is YA, then I’ll fill in the full form; otherwise, the form will be modified.



Go to.....

Seeing Creative

http://www.stinalindenblatt.com/2011/05/celebration-and-giveaway.html?showComment=1305545061408#c5578109876652054249

May's Give Away: WITHER by Lauren DeStefano!

Hello Happy Followers!

Here is your May prize.... It's FABULOUS!!!! You're going to love it....

That's right it's...

WITHER

by Lauren DeStefano!!!!!! 

Hot - Hot - Hot!!!!

http://www.laurendestefano.com/

All you have to do to enter is comment this thread, that's it. 

Contest ends May 22th, 2011 at Midnight! In the Mail May 23rd, 2011. 

Happy posting!

Going Shopping For May's Give-Away!

Who's excited?

Well, he's not...!

That's too excited...!

 Perfect!

GET READY!

TELL ME WHAT YOU HOPE IT IS AND

YOU MIGHT SEE YOUR CHOICE IN 

UPCOMING GIVE-AWAYS

Introducing: Sharla Lovelace author of The Reason is You

Sharla Lovelace author of Anything but Normal (tentative title)
(Update: The Reason is You)

           Firstly Sharla, you are such an interesting woman. I read on your blog that you have owned a book store, scuba dived, been crab hunting in a Honduras jungle at night and you have been spelunking (Caving - congratulations, I’m not often stumped). 

            Anything else we should know about you? 

Isn’t that crazy enough?  LOL.  Well, I also have the normal ordinary stuff too.  I’m married to a wonderful guy who puts up with me and all the voices in my head that demand my attention.  I have a 21 year old son and a 16 year old daughter, an old lady dog that sits in my recliner with me as I write, and 18 cockatiels in an aviary in the backyard.  (Hubby’s side business)

            What would you like to share with us about your book, Anything but Normal?

            I’ll let the query letter below tell you what it’s about, but I will say that this is the second title, and it’s always subject to change again.  Original title was Seeing Alex, and my agent and I came up with the current one before putting it on submission.

            Have you always been a writer?

            In some way.  Not always down on paper.  I would make up stories in my head as a kid and just walk around talking them out or acting them out.  I imagine I was quite the strange dork.  J  I wrote poetry later, then it turned to short stories.  I didn’t attempt anything longer until about 10 yrs ago when a group of my short stories started featuring the same characters, and I got the idea to put all those together like scenes, and from that my first book was born.  That one is still filed away, but it gave me the knowledge and learning experience to keep doing it.

            Is writing a compulsion or a diversion for you?

            Making up stories is a constant thing in my brain, not really something I could stop if I wanted to.  Like little movies going on all the time, and I’m the director.  Whether I write them down or not depends on whether the character wins me over.  Even when I’m at work, I’m developing plotlines while I crunch numbers. 

            When you wrote Anything but Normal, were you sad or happy when you finished the last page?

            Happy!  Because as we all know, it’s not over.  There is always months of editing and revision after that last page is typed, so I knew I wouldn’t be leaving my characters anytime soon.

Take us back to your query process, did you query long?

*laughing*  Well, that depends.  When I finished this book, I queried for a year with a few requests but nothing went further than that.  So I kind of took a break for a few months and then entered it in the November 2010 Secret Agent contest at the Miss Snark’s First Victim blog.  I actually won that contest on the excerpt, but then the agent wasn’t sold on it as a whole, and she gave me some really helpful feedback. Of course I sent out a “rebound query” the same day (don’t we all?) to another agent who essentially said the same things plus some, and it got me thinking.  I sat down and did a major extensive revision of the whole thing, and about the same time I had a casual conversation on Twitter with the awesome rock star agent Jessica Faust of BookEnds, about cross-genres and her fave author in that realm, and she recommended I read her work and then query her when my ms was ready.  Two months later, when my revisions were complete, I knew I was querying her before anything else.  So I sent it.  She’s the only one I queried that time around.  Very next day was a partial request.  Next day was a full request.  Two days later she called me to offer representation.  So…. The long answer is my first version took over a year. My second version took five days.

            You are represented by Jessica Faust of BookEnds, will you share the query that won Ms. Faust’s heart?

            Certainly...

Ms. Faust,

Thanks to you, I’m now a fan of Sarah Addison Allen!  A couple of months ago, you told me about her over an #askagent session on Twitter, while talking about cross-genres.  When I mentioned that I write women’s fiction with paranormal elements, you recommended her as a good read, and told me to query you when ready.  Well, I’m ready.   

Seeing Alex is an 86,000-word women’s fiction, with light paranormal elements, sort of a Ghost Whisperer meets Hope Floats.   I hope you will be intrigued enough to want more. 

Dani Shane just wants her daughter to have what she never did--a normal life.  But “normal” leaves the equation when sixteen year old Riley is found talking to Dani’s only friend, Alex--who’s been dead for forty years. 

In the small town of Bethany, Dani never fit in.  Being different pushed her to the fringes of society, and even leaving town for two decades didn’t stop the talk.  Now that she’s back, her plans for staying under the radar are blown as she has her daughter’s new talent to hide as well.

As Dani scrambles to get solid footing under her family, secrets buried for forty years begin to unearth themselves.  Her father is hiding something from her.  Alex is the only spirit that stuck around, and they’ve always been connected, but he is hiding something too.  Then there’s that little thing she’s not telling her daughter.  Like that some of the people she sees aren’t breathing. 

I am a member of RWA, and active in its online Women’s Fiction chapter.  I appreciate your time, Ms. Faust, and thank you for the recommendation!  Hope to hear back from you soon.

            Every aspiring author dreams of the day they get “the call,” will you tell us what that call was really like?

            I stopped breathing, and ran across the hall (I was at work) to my co-worker holding out my phone and sucking air like a lunatic, and she thought someone had died or something.  Jessica is amazing.  She’s as in love with my book as I am, and was so excited about it that it just blew my mind.  I’ll never forget her saying that she needed to read it again for edits because when she read it the first time she forgot to look for problems because she just started reading it for pleasure and got all into it.  No better compliment…ever.  She asked me if I needed to think about it, and I was like, “Nope!  Not even a little bit!”

            After “the call” is over and euphoria wears off, what happened next? 

            The euphoria wears off?  LOL.  I don’t know I’m still there!  I worked on revisions from her for a few days and then it was sent off to publishers.  Now it’s a whole new waiting game. 

            I hear the editing process can be grueling, how have you dealt with that on top of being a wife, mother, author and working a full-time job?

            My writing time is right after work, around errands and laundry and dinner, and then early mornings for 3-4 hrs on the weekends.  I have to make the most of the time I have.  Editing works the same way, gotta squeeze it in.  Sometimes I squeeze it in at work if I can get away with it…shhhh…but I don’t usually get the opportunity.

            Where do you go from here, more editing, the publishers, both? 

            Just waiting to hear from the publishers now, I’ve started a new book to keep me from stalking my email and losing my mind.

            What are you currently writing, any clues for that project you would like to share?

            It’s still too new to share completely…but I will say it involves secrets.  A psychic empath, a quirky town with magical secrets, a search for a mother, and a powerful old love.

            Sharla, thank you for visiting with us. We wish you continued success and please share your links so we know where to find your fabulous blog, coincidentally named Anything but Normal. 

            LOL. And it was named that for the last year and a half.  When we were looking for names for the book, Jessica liked that the best, so I guess I had a premonition, huh?   You can find me at www.sharlascroggs.blogspot.com and on Twitter at @sharlascroggs.  

            This note was too sweet not to share, Thanks Sharla!

            Thank you so much, Candie, for the interview!  Great questions.  I enjoyed it!  You are all kinds of awesome, girl!  And you have great shoes…. :-)

WINNER!!!!!! Of the $50 Borders Gift Card is....

Thank you all for following and sharing some stories with me.

I had a blast reading your notes.


I will be holding at least one give away per month, so check back often. This one took a little over 24 hours. FAST!


And now the moment you've all been waiting for........




Congratulations!!!!!!

Miranda @ My Eclectic Bookshelf



You are the lucky winner of the $50 Borders Gift Card.

I'll email you for your address.


Thanks for playing!!!!!!!!  

Fifty Dollar Borders Gift Card Contest

 

WIN!

$50 BORDERS GIFT CARD

$50 for 50 followers!

(I'm not above bribery)

To enter:

First, tell all of your friends to follow this blog.

(No, you don't have to tell them why, you can keep this contest all to yourself)

Second, tell me (in this comment section) a little bit about yourself. Say hi, tell me what books you read, what movies you like. Heck, tell me you collect fossils for a hobby. I don't care, just leave a comment. 

Winner will be selected at random. Okay - if you make me laugh or cry, you might stand a better chance. 

That's all.

This contest will continue until I reach fifty followers.

If you make that happen by tomorrow, great!

  I'll drop the $50 Borders gift card in the mail tomorrow.

Good luck!

Come back next week for my interview with Sharla Scroggs! 

Sharla's going to share with us what it was like when she got "the call," and what happens now that she's found an agent.

Don't miss it.

So, I KILLED the narrator!

Calling all writers!!!! 

I want to know your biggest hurtles and how you overcame them.

I just made my second biggest decision, I scrapped my finished 400+ page, 80,000 word manuscript and started over.

Ugh! I know.

But I heard the same thing enough times, to not want to EVER hear it again!!!!!

"You're a talented writer, but..."

"I like the concept-didn't fall in love with the pages."

"I didn't get the narrative tone."

So I KILLED the narrator!

I am rewriting it in the first person.

Here's a sample if you're interested...

http://candieleighcampbell.com/home/sample_pages

And please, oh please, tell me I am not alone!!!!

What the Hell is Writing In My Own Voice?

Painting by Sally Touch-Moser

Ah well, another day - another rewrite. I had a few things that were really bugging me about my manuscript, it took me forever to realize what it was. And the thing that made me figure it out was actually the words that hurt me the most. "I like the concept of the novel. Unfortunately, though, I don't think it is quite right for me. The narrative voice did not really work for me, I did not connect to it as much as I had hoped, thus, I am stepping aside for an agent who will." An agent commented that he didn't identify with the voice in my writing. Of curse, I felt like he was saying he didn't like the way I spoke, because after all I am the narrator. Until I remembered something my husband said to me months ago when I read him a few pages "it doesn't really sound like you. It's good but..."

My biggest mistake was taking those things personally and not listening. When I finally heard what they were both saying, I was able to give myself permission to write in my own voice. I don't know why I'd been afraid to before now, maybe I thought I was supposed to come with this magical writer's voice. I don't know, but when I looked at my manuscript with new eyes, I saw it. I was lost in there, only pieces of me were coming through the pages.

I decided to take it a chapter at a time and find me, strengthen my voice, my words and tell my story - my way.

My mistake had been to follow some imaginary leader instead of forging my own path.

Baaaaad idea. I've ripped apart four chapters so far, and I love them! Once again, learn from my mistakes and give yourself permission right up front to be you and write in your own way, not by how some book or teacher tells you to write.

YA Pitch Contest

Great pitch contest for Children’s and YA writers. Ammi-Joan Paquette from Erin Murphy Literary Agency is currently closed to submissions but she’ll read your pitch, if you follow this link and the directions.

It’s only open to the first one-hundred-fifty entrants. So hustle, it’s filling up fast!!!

Good luck!

http://yatopia.blogspot.com/2011/03/agent-pitch-contest.html#comments

What NOT To Do at a Writer’s Conference!

As promised, here’s my list of what NOT to do at a writer’s conference.

1.      Don’t miss your scheduled writer’s pitch!

Adam Friedstein, with Anderson Literary Management, graciously still allowed me to pitch and even requested pages. He read my material quickly and though it didn’t work for him he had these kind words for me “You're a talented writer - I really enjoyed the read.” Well, with compliments like that, how can I be sad? 

2.      Don’t be afraid to approach agents - but have your elevator pitch ready!!!! 

I sat petrified with the other chickens far away from the agents at the party, while Lindsay Cummings got out there, with her perfect elevator pitch and sold it! She got five requests for FULLS (you go, Lindsay)!  After my arm was twisted by this petite dynamo, I did awkwardly approach one agent at the party and stumbled my way through a too-long description of all the things my book WASN'T about, but he did request some pages and a synopsis out of pity. Dr. Uwe Stender had this to say in his rejection… “I like the concept of the novel.  Unfortunately, though, I don't think it is quite right for me. The narrative voice did not really work for me…” OUCH! Just yank that Band-Aid right off!

3.      If a workshop is full, push your way in anyway.

I don’t do well with crowds or small spaces and I chickened out when I saw how packed the synopsis class was. I ran away in search of another option and found myself nodding off in a tax-workshop. I don’t know about you, but I pay someone else to do my taxes for a good reason. I DID learn valuable information though. Write down my mileage (all millage from the beginning of the year to the end), keep a log of where I’m going and the miles I use for research, conferences, crit groups etc. and keep receipts for lodging, computers, and food at events or groups… and then give it to my tax professional.

My advice? Go to a conference, don’t follow my mistakes and have fun! I had such a great time. Made some amazing friends and memories, and I learned things I shall never forget.